Mountmellick trip diary

After yesterday’s post on Mountmellick embroidery, I was talking about it with my husband. He was trying to remind me of a visit we paid to a lady in Mountmellick who showed us a large embroidered bedspread that she’d borrowed from An Grianan to clean. I remembered the bedspread (probably because I have photos of it) but not meeting the lady or being at her house.

About 6 years ago, I had Chronic Fatigue Syndrome for about 9 months. During that time, some of my memory was wiped. There’s whole slabs of time before then that I don’t remember. I’ve now divided my life (and my memories) into before CFS and after CFS. Obviously the part where I visited this lady’s house was wiped from my memory.

Whenever we travel, we write diaries of the trips as they are really useful for aiding the memory later. I even wrote one of the cruise I just went on. So yesterday I went looking for my diary of the trip.

I found the diary (and my husband’s) and spent a bit of time reading through it last night. I was reminded of all sorts of things! Apparently a large part of the holiday was trying to get The Reader (who was about 2 at the time, and therefore obviously not yet known as The Reader!) to eat vegetables other than hot chips! I even saw a hedgehog. I’ve never seen a hedgehog before or since. It was roadkill (fresh, but not horribly maimed) so therefore I didn’t take a photo of it. Now I wish I had, so that I could remind myself of what it looked like (not the maimed bit!).

Anyway, yes, we did in fact visit Annie Kelly‘s house and she was the one who showed us a bedspread from An Grianan in Termonfeckin, which is run by the Irish Countrywomen’s Association as a place for learning, and recreation.

“Annie was lovely. She showed us the absolutely amazing bed quilt and told us how she came to have it. It had been on display and had gone a taupe colour and looked awful. She had asked if she might be able to borrow it to wash it – and they agreed. So wash it she did, and it came up beautifully white. She said she had prayed many prayers before doing it though!

She then showed me some of her own work. She obviously loves it. She showed me a clever way of doing a fringed buttonhole. I got out my needle and thread and tried it, and then she showed me a few other stitches too. It was time well spent!”

I also wrote about my morning with Sister Teresa Margaret McCarthy at the Presentation Convent. She showed me many wonderful examples of embroidery and we spent a delightful few hours together. After we had finished with the embroidery, she showed me around the convent and I saw the famous Pim trunk. The Pim trunk was a trunk given to the convent by the Pim family. At first they just stowed it away, thinking it was a gift of another trunk. Some time later, someone opened it and discovered it was full of Mountmellick patterns!

“I had arranged for The Husband to pick me up at midday, so at that time when we saw the car drive in, I had to go out and greet them while [Sister Teresa] arranged for some morning tea in the dining room.

I was expecting them all to be there, but as it turned out The Reader was asleep and Mum (my mother in law joined us on this holiday) was minding her. I brought The Husband in and introduced him. She was disappointed not to meet The Reader and “Granny”. We went into the dining room, where there was a pot of tea, and some plates of cakes already laid out.

She insisted we have tea and some cakes. I got The Husband just to pour me half a cup, which I then bravely struggled through (I don’t drink tea or coffee!). The Husband finally refused a THIRD cup, obviously not feeling it was polite to stop before then.”

In Mountmellick I also visited Bridie Conroy’s The Old Pump Craft Shop, where we discovered many delights. I purchased some balls of cotton, some fabric, and a book. I spent some hours with some ladies at the Mountmellick Development Association who had put out a display of their Mountmellick work and some old pieces. I wandered around and looked at the display, asking questions about the stitches.

While in Ireland I had appointments at a number of museums where I was able to view the Mountmellick work in their collections. It was a really valuable trip, and helped me to really properly understand what Mountmellick embroidery is and about the culture that it comes from. Having my diary to reacquaint myself with all the finer details of the trip, and all the notes I took during my meetings and appointments has also been invaluable.